User blog:Ceauntay/'Best Friends Reunion' Wins Easter Weekend With $45 Million
”Best Friends Reunion” got off a strong start at the box office this Easter weekend, making $45 million rom 3,614 screens. That made it a better opening than any Disney Channel hit movies comparing to ”High School Musical : Senior Year”'s $42 million opening weekend in 2008. The good news is that it has positive word of mouth on its side. The film has a 62 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, and made waves on social media when it received a standing ovation at SXSW earlier this month. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an A- grade, with male millennials giving it the highest grade average while female and older audiences gave it an average of B+. Opening night crowds were 64 percent children and 41 percent older the age of 18. “Best Friends Reunion” will need that word of mouth to carry over into strong returns for the next few weeks to make the film profitable. Warner Bros.’ “Ready Player One” debuted in second place recent projections of $53 million from 4,324 locations. The film opened Thursday, getting a head start over its fellow weekend releases, “Tyler Perry’s Acrimony” and “God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness.” The virtual reality fantasy, which currently holds an A- CinemaScore and 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, released internationally with $128 million since it opened in Tuesday previews, bringing its worldwide total up to an impressive $181.2 million. The film based on Ernest Cline’s novel stars Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg and T.J. Miller. “We’re absolutely thrilled,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. domestic distribution president. “Steven Spielberg is just an incredible director of our time. Nobody else could have done this but Steven. The film itself is just an extraordinary piece of movie making.” “Tyler Perry’s Acrimony” — Tyler Perry’s 19th collaboration with Lionsgate — secured third place with $17 million in 2,006 locations. Meanwhile, the third installment of the “God’s Not Dead” franchise premiered with $2.6 million in 1,693 locations. Marvel’s “Black Panther” remains a powerhouse in the No. 4 slot, taking in $11 million in 2,988 locations. The tentpole crossed the $650 million mark at the North American box office, maintaining its place as the fifth-highest release in the U.S. of all time. It looks to shortly become the fourth-highest release after it passes “Jurassic World,” which made $652 million. Currently, “Titanic” is at No. 3 with $659 million. Rounding out the top five is the Christian drama “I Can Only Imagine” stayed strong in fourth place with $10.5 million in 2,648 locations. With $55.3 million in its three weeks, “I Can Only Imagine” is Roadside Attractions’ highest grossing release ever. Another faith-based film, “Paul, Apostle of Christ” saw $3.5 million at 1,473 locations. In two weeks, the film has made $11.5 million. “Pacific Rim Uprising”, which earned with $9.2 million in 3,708 locations this weekend, previously held the top spot last weekend, has taken in $45.6 million domestically. On par with its first weekend, the sequel to 2013’s “Pacific Rim” had an impressive international turnout with $22.2 million in 63 markets, bringing its international total up to $96.6 million. Continuing its limited release, Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs” made $2.9 million for a per screen average of $17,420 after expanding to 165 locations. Fox Searchlight Pictures’ stop-motion animation has grossed $5.9 million and looks to cross the $6 million mark in the upcoming week. Next weekend, “Isle of Dogs” will spread to between 450 and 500 locations. In total, the box office is down 21.2% compared to the same weekend last year, while the 2018 North American box office is down 3.8% from 2017. However, Paul Dergarabedian, a media analyst at comScore, says “Ready Player One” looks to have promising playability at the box office ahead of the debuts of “Blockers” and “A Quiet Place” next week and “Avengers Infinity War” at the end of April. “After a rough month of March at the box office, down 24.1% vs. last year, ‘Ready Player One’ will hopefully portend bigger and better things to come at the April box office,” he said. Category:Blog posts